#poalof interviews

[tenemos-que-hablar]

“...so the new concept that is proposed by the film and is also the spirit in which we made this film, really interests me. Now, the muse is in more equal relationship with the artist.”

Adèle Haenel of Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019) discusses the concept of muses (while also teasing Noémie Merlant). 

(via @neonrated on twitter // Mar. 3, 2020)

[bereaving]

(x)

[ladyonfire28]

Noémie Merlant: "I remember very well the pride I felt on the red carpet."

One year ago, Portrait of a Lady on Fire, by Céline Sciamma, won the Best Screenplay Award at the Cannes Film Festival. The actress, who gives the lines to Adèle Haenel, looks back on the events that accompanied her contribution in this sensual, feminist film, made of glances, painting and flames. To be seen this Tuesday, May 19 on Canal+

Noémie Merlant remembers precisely July 14, 2018. That day, she went to her third audition for Portrait of a Lady on Fire, the new film of Céline Sciamma, in the presence of the director. At the end of her audition, the director said, "it's for you.” “My mind was so confused that I couldn't understand what she was telling me," said Noémie Merlant laughing. “I felt both a tremendous pressure and a tremendous desire because I measured the importance of the film and the role.”

The actress, who’s now 31 years old, seen in Curiosa, Heaven Will Wait and Paper Flags was thus chosen to be Marianne in Portrait of a Lady on Fire, and to play, with Adèle Haenel, two of the most beautiful film heroines of 2019, and certainly the most beautiful couple of women. Marianne, the painter in the carmine red dress who must secretly capture from memory the features of Heloise, who was promised to an arranged marriage.

In the staging of this incandescent lesbian love in the middle of the 18th century, the two actresses have irradiated the Cannes Film Festival. Contacted by phone while she was confined in her apartment in the 15th arrondissement of Paris ("in the street where I was born!") Noémie Merlant looks back on the few months that separated her from the ascent of the staircase, and the fever that gripped the Croisette after the film viewing.

"When I discovered the film, I couldn't talk. I felt dizzy from what I'd seen."

From the filming, which took place between Quiberon and la Chapelle-Gauthier, in Seine-et-Marne, Noémie Merlant keeps the memory of a special moment, suspended in time, "very cocooning. The atmosphere was very much like the one in the movie. We lived in a benevolent cocoon created by Celine Sciamma, a mixture of strong friendships that were beginning to emerge, of creation and artistic exchanges. I quickly felt a very strong sense of cohesion in the team." After seven weeks of shooting and several others of editing, Noémie Merlant discovers the result of their efforts. "I knew what we had done was going to make a great film, but when I found out, I couldn't speak, I felt dizzy from what I'd seen, what I'd participated in. A very strong sensation, which I could express later by walking down the street with Celine for a long time afterwards.”

In April, the team learns about the selection of Portrait of a Lady on Fire in competition at the Festival of Cannes, the first time for the director, who is a regular on the Croisette, after Water Lilies at Un certain regard (2007), Girlhood at La Quinzaine des Directeurs (2014) and My life as a Courgette, an animated film by Claude Barras that she co-wrote, also selected for La Quinzaine in 2016.

Looking back, Noémie Merlant realizes how "lucky" she was to be surrounded by people who knew the ins and outs of the world's biggest film festival, where all eyes would be on them. "Adèle is used to it, she was my guide. She keeps a certain distance from the event and its "big masquerade" side. If Cannes is also a place to have fun, we kept in mind why we were there. We knew what was at stake and the importance of this selection, and the fact that we were very close to each other made it easier for me to meet the Festival.”

"There was a burning feeling abroad about the film, a great expectation from the audience"

On May 19, 2019, the film crew, a magnificent band of women dressed in black or navy blue, walks the steps on the exhilarating female chorus that can be heard in one scene, composed by Celine Sciamma's lifelong friend, Para One, with Arthur Simonini. A moment of great intensity for Noémie Merlant. "I remember very well the pride I felt on the red carpet. The pride of having contributed to a film that speaks so well of love and sorority.”

At the end of the screening, the film was greeted by nearly ten minutes of applause, notably in front of Marina Foïs and Claire Denis. Noémie Merlant, her eyes filled with tears, embraces Adèle and savors this moment that will become unforgettable. "When the whole Grand Théâtre Lumière stands up and applauds, it's impressive, and I might only experience it once in my life," she whispers. Then comes the time of the party given for the film, and several hours of meetings with the press from all over the world. "Intense days. I'd never done interviews before, with a lot of small formats that tire you out before the longer meetings." The film was awarded the Screenplay Prize, a small disappointment for the director. "Céline made us come back to Cannes so we could live things together until the end. Of course, we would have liked to get more, especially in terms of directing. That's what struck me the most when I discovered the film. Its sobriety and elegance. But the trophy for the screenplay remains, of course, a very nice prize."

Portrait of a Lady on Fire was released in France four months after its screening in Cannes, and achieved an average score in theaters: it drew a little over 310,000 spectators, but was a real hit internationally, with more than 1.3 million admissions in 36 countries. 

“There was something burning around the film abroad, a great expectation from the audience, seized by this love story. This film carries a different voice, and allows it to be heard. Before working with Celine Sciamma, I had never heard of "male gaze" and "female gaze". Portrait of a Lady on Fire allows these important discussions, without any violence, only as an invitation to an another point of view." The film has particularly ignited the lesbian community, which has finally been able to identify with an other imaginary, different from what is usually represented on screen.

On Adèle Haenel's speech to Mediapart in November or the last evening of the César awards, Noémie Merlant prefers not to express herself, even if she stills says that she "admires her courage", and thinks back on this evening as "a movement, a renewal, a reconstruction". Of which the actress is certainly a part.

[yellowgooseberry]

“A moment like that doesn’t exist because when I decide something, I’m already doing it.”

-Adèle Haenel

This is Adele’s response when asked by a director during an audition, “Try to remember a moment in your life where you made a radical decision.”

It’s such a simple but poignant response. It blurs the separation between decision and action. That is to say, fear and doubts are set aside in favour of doing exactly what you want, what you already know you want to do. We spend so much time contemplating our decisions and for what? Delay things in fear of repercussions, in fear of making the wrong choice. Repress yourself because it seems easier. All that does is delay progress, delay growth. Life can only take so much setbacks before it runs out of time. 

QUI N’AVANCE PAS, RECULE

[thexfridax]

Master list: Translated interviews / articles / Q&As with Céline Sciamma, Adèle Haenel, Noémie Merlant (and others)

Last updated: 27 December 2024

—

Created on 3rd of August 2020 (and updated hereafter as much as possible, but you know how it is 😅; the Excel file with all of the below is saved here for the time being.)

This is a master list gathering various interviews etc. with Céline, Adèle and Noémie (and others that were interviewed together with them, or in relation to them and their work), translated by @mlleclaudine​, @ladyonfire28​ and moi (@thexfridax​). I would like to thank and applaud Claudine and Aimée for your massive contribution to the Portrait fandom.

There are so many more of you (@pensoakspaper​, @unfumble​​, @morningmightcomebyaccident​, @hedawolf​, @empressofkalumina​, @bereaving​​, @tenemos-que-hablar​​, @rosedelosvientos​ … to name a few) who keep the fire and conversation around Portrait and C/A/N alive by creating art and content – merci, this is also for you!

@justanotheruntitled04 created a master list of videos/audios with any of the three of them here. More Youtube translations can be found here: @akaiimee​.

Aimée’s amazing POALOF DVD commentary master post can be found here. [C’est fini 😥]

***UPDATES***

If you want to find out more about Adèle’s theatre work, check this out.

POALOF podcasts made by @podcastofaladyonfire can be found here.

@scorpio-sky has created a DVDography of Adèle’s work, it’s here.

An inofficial fan-made transcript (French plus English stage direction) of POALOF can be found here, a collaboration 😍 between @pensoakspaper, @mlleclaudine, @ladyonfire28 and @morningmightcomebyaccident.

@page28club provided English subs for Adèle’s anti-racist transfeminist roundtable [troll alert during the Q&As 😡] and Boomerang interview [Césars, Les héros ne meurent jamais, Le Corps Lesbien].

Folks, we have the unofficial English translation of the French POALOF screenplay (Plain Archive) HERE, brought to you by yours truly @mlleclaudine, with support from @tonovember, @morningmightcomebyaccident, @ladyonfire28 and @hedawolf among others.

#MeToo in France: Interview with Marine Turchi (Nov 2020), Mediapart article about Adèle Haenel’s case (paywall; Nov 2019), Mediapart interview with Adèle Haenel (Nov 2019). 💔

@ladyonfire28 wrote her first piece about cinema, choosing Céline Sciamma’s debut film Water Lilies, see here in French or in English.

A CALL FOR SUBMISSION for Portrait fanart can be found here. A joint initiative by @empressofkalumina, @mlleclaudine, @rosedelosvientos and @thexfridax. 🖼️👻🔥 [on hold until further notice]

Interview with Céline Sciamma on ‘Coming of Age, in Life and Film’ (Berlinale Talents, March 2021) via @celinesfiamma

L’Étang review in the NY Times (May 2021)

How Good Filmmaking Brings a Script to Life - Wonderful scene breakdown of Portrait of a Lady on Fire by LFTS / Michael Tucker (May 2021), also highlighting the unofficial English translation of the POALOF screenplay by @mlleclaudine, with support from @tonovember, @morningmightcomebyaccident, @ladyonfire28, and @hedawolf

L’Étang recaps [1], [2], [3] by yours truly, @thexfridax (June, Aug 2021, May 2022)

Weird Céline Sciamma profiles, for good measure [1], [2]

Dee has created another comprehensive blog, this time for Céline’s works and collaborations

A lovely profile of Céline Sciamma via @mlleclaudine

The French Institute UK - Petite Maman Q&A with Céline Sciamma (Feb 2022)

Q&A with Adèle Haenel after a screening of POALOF in Vienna (May 2022)

Weird Adèle Haenel profile [1]

Trial against C.R.: Mediapart reports from the 1st and 2nd day (Dec 2024) translated by @mlleclaudine​, pre-trial coverage with more background information - document only available in French [1]

I’m happy to add anyone else to this list, too! The more the merrier. 😉

Photo by Foc Kan/WireImage

Somewhat ordered by year of publication and C/A/N/others (as of 3rd of Aug 2020: 78 183 ✨; any further updates will be put at the bottom of each year to make my life easier (=> for those older than 2021):

2024

Adèle Haenel: "Je suis la représentante de cette enfant qui a disparu, que personne n'a protégée" [also see above for Mediapart coverage of the trial from Dec 2024]

2023

Adèle Haenel, itinéraire d’une artiste en lutte

“J’ai décidé de politiser mon arrêt du cinéma” : la lettre d’Adèle Haenel à “Télérama”

Noémie Merlant, actrice pleine de surprises : “J’ai toujours peur qu’on ne comprenne pas mes blagues”

Noémie Merlant : «On devrait tous être féministes, aussi bien les hommes que les femmes»

"Je la regardais et je revoyais Titanic !" : Noémie Merlant raconte son tournage vertigineux avec Kate Winslet

Tête-à-tête avec Noémie Merlant, grande promesse du cinéma français

2022

Interview with Céline Sciamma: “Alliances are extremely important”

“I’M NOT DOING CINEMA ANYMORE” [Adèle Haenel]

Noémie Merlant : «J'ai longtemps cru qu'il fallait être parfaite, ce qui me verrouillait»

Noémie Merlant : la comédie, “c’est très plaisant et libérateur”

Rokhaya Diallo & Adèle Haenel: Le combat des mots

2021

«Le regard d’enfant est un regard perçant» Céline Sciamma, Petite Maman

Céline Sciamma : “Je veux donner du pouvoir politique aux mères”

Céline Sciamma: “Toute ma vie, je me suis demandé comment était ma mère à mon âge”

CÉLINE SCIAMMA | Interview

Céline Sciamma : « Pour une cinéaste, on ne sépare pas la femme de l’artiste »

Director Sciamma ‘It’s a dance with ghosts’

"On est du côté des enfants, de leur regard sur leurs parents": Céline Sciamma à propos de son nouveau film, "Petite Maman"

Reviews on Pétite Maman: [1], [2], [3]

Céline Sciamma : «S’engager rend toujours vulnérable»

Céline Sciamma, réalisatrice de “Petite Maman”: “Sur le tournage, je me demandais, que ferait Miyazaki ?”

Céline Sciamma: “’Petite Maman’” est le parfait film post-pandémie"

Baise-moi et King Kong théorie de Virginie Despentes

Adèle Haenel dans les eaux incestueuses de «L’Etang»

Feu!

«L’expérience offerte par une œuvre d’art devrait être centrale»

Reviews on L’Étang: [1], [2], [3]

Noémie Merlant : "L'expérience de la salle de cinéma manque terriblement"

Interview / De Sciamma à Mixte : Nina Meurisse, l'actrice de Caen qui a la cote!

2020

CÉLINE SCIAMMA : «DiCaprio est une icône lesbienne. »

Céline Sciamma: inventer une femme pour les raconter toutes

Aïssa Maïga and Adèle Haenel : «Finally there’s something political happening»

Noémie Merlant, l'actrice qui dévergonde le cinéma français, se confie

Noémie Merlant (JUMBO) : "Si je ne fais rien, il faut que je sois dans l'eau"

The making of Shakira with Noémie Merlant

Noémie talks about Jumbo in L’instant cinéma

JUMBO, NOEMIE MERLANT

A Good Man Behind the Scenes

Rising star Noémie Merlant: 'Being a model is terrible. It shouldn't exist’

Noémie Merlant: «Quand ça dérange, ça titille des choses importantes et utiles»

Noémie Merlant: "I remember very well the pride I felt on the red carpet."

Noémie Merlant, in the light

*Noémie Merlant talks about the César*

“The double life of Noémie Merlant”

Jumbo - Interview de Noémie Merlant & Zoé Wittock

Rencontre avec Zoé Wittock et Noémie Merlant sur le film "Jumbo"

Zoé Wittock & Noémie Merlant: Jumbo Instagram Live 28 March 2020

Rencontres confinées : Claire Mathon à propos du film Portrait de la jeune fille en feu - 29 avril

From mourning to resilience, Gisèle Vienne discusses her next creation with Adèle Haenel

***UPDATES below***

Céline Sciamma: "Le militantisme est un moment de grande vulnérabilité"

Céline Sciamma & Annie Ernaux: Sœurs de Combat

Céline Sciamma

Translated interview with Adèle Haenel, heroine of “Portrait of a Lady on Fire”; Translated excerpt from ’“Portrait of a Lady on Fire” - Approaching the True Face* of Adèle Haenel’ [2 in 1]

Haenel gets up and gets out

#4 Adèle Haenel

"Not correctness, but towards raising questions": the gaze of actress Adèle Haenel

“The experience of being alive is not the priority of the government”. Conversation with Gisèle Vienne, Adèle Haenel & Ruth Vega Fernandez

Adèle Haenel

Interview d'Adèle Haenel et Noémie Merlant pour la sortie Portrait de la jeune fille en feu au Royaume-Uni [1, autotranslated]; [2]

Fashion and cinema interview with Noémie Merlant, star of French cinema at the Deauville Film Festival

Rencontre avec Luàna Bajrami, étoile montante

2019

‘We started a culture war‘

Céline Sciamma • Réalisatrice de Portrait de la jeune fille en feu

Céline Sciamma: «Il y a eu un sacrifice de lesbiennes dans toute l'histoire du cinéma»

«Portrait de la jeune fille en feu» : entretien avec Céline Sciamma [1]; Portrait of a Lady on Fire: An Interview With Céline Sciamma [2]

Entretien avec Céline Sciamma : « Je veux juste qu’on arrête d’opposer le point de vue féminin au point de vue universel. »

Céline Sciamma, en feu et en flammes

Céline Sciamma, la femme qui filmait les femmes

Céline Sciamma: «Portrait de la jeune fille en feu» est un film totalement dédié à l’amour»

"Portrait de la jeune fille en feu" : Céline Sciamma et Adèle Haenel s'embrasent

"Portrait de la jeune fille en feu" : rencontre au Méliès de Montreuil

«Je ne viens pas pour servir la soupe» : entretien avec Adèle Haenel

Viennale Star Adèle Haenel: ‘Equality is sexy’

A new politics of love - An interview with Adèle Haenel on 'Portrait of a Lady on Fire'

Adèle Haenel: Figurehead of the new French Film

Adèle Haenel: 'Sex in cinema is usually quite pathetic’

Adèle Haenel (German interview)

Adèle Haenel en rediffusion et Pomme en déconfinement

Exclusive interview with Noémie Merlant and Adèle Haenel, lead actresses in ‘Portrait of a Lady on Fire’

Entretien avec Adèle Haenel et Noémie Merlant

Interview Noémie Merlant et Adèle Haenel : «En tant que comédienne, en tant que femme, il y a beaucoup d’échos.»

Dance of the gazes and female desire  

[PORTRAIT] Noémie Merlant : «J’ai progressivement essayé de choisir des rôles féminins qui ont du sens »

Festival de Cannes 2019 : Noémie Merlant, «Quand je m’éteins, je vais voir un film et je re-rêve »

France tv & vous / République, le film interactif avec France.tv lab [Noémie Merlant, Lyna Khoudri]

Rencontre avec Hélène Delmaire, la peintre lilloise du film « Portrait de la jeune fille en feu »

Christel Baras, la directrice de casting qui a découvert Adèle Haenel à 11 ans

***UPDATES below***

Focus Vif, September 26, 2019: Dixit Céline Sciamma

Vertiges de l’amour

Céline Sciamma, le feu sacré & Noémie Merlant, portrait of an actress

CÉLINE SCIAMMA: "Si on me demande ce qu’est le female gaze, pour moi, c’est partager."

Culture : Feux croisés entre Céline Sciamma et Monica Sabolo

Rencontre Céline Sciamma: "Il faut créer les conditions de sa liberté"

Céline Sciamma : «Je voulais faire un voyage dans l’histoire de l’art d’un point de vue féminin»

The female gaze: An interview with Céline Sciamma; Interview with director Céline Sciamma; Sciamma: ‘I want to show images of daily life that are missing’ [3 articles in 1]

Interview : Céline Sciamma «Ils ne savent pas voler, elles, elles savent.»

Love and let love

Céline Sciamma: ‘I love films that hate me!’

Director Céline Sciamma: ‘I try to create new forms of eroticism’

Forgotten women

‘I am a film activist’ - Interview with Céline Sciamma

“On ne s'en laisse plus conter. On écoute ce qu'on ressent.” (Adèle Haenel et Noémie Merlant)

Adèle Haenel : «Le respect pousse à s’investir»

Rencontre avec Adèle Haenel, à l'affiche de trois films à Cannes

Actress Adèle Haenel: The French Revolutionary

Portrait de l’artiste en jeune femme

2018

Adèle Haenel, le jeu sacré

Adèle Haenel : «Il y a toujours matière à rire de soi »

***UPDATES below***

Adèle Haenel : “J’ai grandi avec La Cité de la peur et Les Trois Frères”

Adèle Haenel: «Je fais souvent les choses à l’envers»

2017

Entretien avec Adèle Haenel – Sophie dans 120 battements par minute

No, I’m not made of sugar: Shooting star Adèle Haenel

Génération Slimani

Adèle Haenel et Adèle Exarchopoulos : Orpheline

Adèle Haenel in an interview for 120BPM

***UPDATES below***

Screenplay writer Céline Sciamma: The women behind the big emotions

Un fantôme que l’on décrit avec complaisance est un fantôme qui cesse d’agir 👻

Adèle Haenel. L’émotion brute

‘I have ten years, then I become part of the system’

"120 BPM" à TÊTU : Les acteurs nous ont confié les secrets du tournage

Adèle Haenel in 2017 [3 articles merged]

Quand Adèle (Haenel) rencontre Adèle (Exarchopoulos)

Noémie Merlant & Naomi Amarger: ‘Heaven will wait’

2016

Translated interview with Adèle Haenel [and others] on ‘The Bloom of Yesterday’

Adèle Haenel, l'insaisissable

Le Grand Journal du 23/03 avec Wassim Nasr, Stéphane Gatignon, Adèle Haenel et Marianne Denicourt - CANAL +

MASTERCLASS du 6 oct 2016 - La Fille Inconnue

Dans la tête de Adèle Haenel

Noémie Merlant dans «Le Ciel Attendra »

Chris Kraus about Adèle »Machine Gun« Haenel

***UPDATES below***

André Téchiné et Céline Sciamma: entretien croisé autour de Quand on a 17 ans

Interview : Céline Sciamma

Adèle Haenel, la nouvelle héroïne des frères Dardenne

Adèle Haenel, géante dans Les Ogres

Interview with Adèle Haenel about ‘The Unknown Girl’

Les Ogres. Adèle Haenel: "Ne valorisons pas trop la souffrance"

Adèle Haenel: “Je ne veux pas me résoudre au cynisme”

Adèle Haenel: “And the fight against racism, is that a black thing?”

Adèle Haenel : «La plus grande force de l’homme, c’est le pardon»

Adèle Haenel : “Dire ‘Allez vous faire foutre !’, c'est un peu mon moteur” [Télérama; long version]

Adèle Haenel, comédienne : “Le cinéma blanc et masculin, j'en ai marre” [Télérama; short version]

Noémie Merlant, talent brut

2015

‘Being young means: To refuse’

Une apparition de cinéma [!!!]

Brouiller les pistes [!!!]

Les grandes actrices sont des femmes intelligentes

Une minute sans cligner des yeux

On va te manger

***UPDATES below*** 

Adèle Haenel, la belle dégenrée 😱

2014

Filming of ‘Girlhood‘

‘Girlhood’ - A meeting with Céline Sciamma

"'Bande de filles' montre des Blacks à l’écran et ça nous rend fières"

Céline Sciamma: «Les grands films libèrent des territoires plutôt qu’ils ne les occupent»

Cannes 2014: Céline Sciamma, fille de bandes

Adèle Haenel : "Je ne pose pas de limite quand j’ai donné ma confiance"

Les verbes d'Adèle:  Rencontre avec Adèle Haenel, actrice

Adèle Haenel - Force vive

***UPDATES below***

Course en Tête

Adèle Haenel : “A un moment on commence à tellement se kiffer qu'on fait n'importe quoi”

Adèle Haenel, petit soldat

La belle vie d'Adèle Haenel

Adèle Haenel: « J’aime l’idée que les filles s’endurcissent »

Interview d'Adèle Haenel : "La relation avec un réalisateur fait tout"

Adèle Haenel: cherchez le garçon… manqué !

Adèle Haenel: “On ne me reproche plus de ne pas être assez féminine!”

“Elle a un fort potentiel burlesque”, Adèle Haenel racontée par André Téchiné

“Une super-héroïne sans superpouvoirs”, Adèle Haenel racontée par Thomas Cailley

2013

***UPDATES below*** 

Adèle Haenel - La belle audacieuse

2012

Adèle Haenel et Nicolas Maury: conversation ciblée sur Avignon

Une journée avec Adèle Haenel

***UPDATES below***

Interview with Céline Sciamma

2011

***UPDATES below***

Tomboy - Interview with Céline Sciamma

Céline Sciamma, quand tourner est un jeu d’enfants

Adèle Haenel, la belle insurgée

2007

Naissance d'une réalisatrice

[captainpeachperfect]

[voyniches]

Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019), dir. Céline Sciamma // [x]

[josy72]

Interview of Adèle Haenel and Noémie Merlant for the Portrait of the young girl on fire release in the United Kingdom Nadège Alezine

on 01/31/20 - modified on 02/28/20

(Google trad)

Portrait of a Young Girl on Fire was written and directed by Céline Sciamma ( Tomboy, Bande de filles, ma vie de courgette ). The director and screenwriter won the screenplay prize at the last Cannes film festival for this sapphic love story between a painter and her subject in 18th century Brittany. Exploration of desire but also of consent, this resolutely feminist film in the spirit of the times features Adèle Haenel ( Free! 120 beats per minute ) and Noémie Merlant ( The sky will wait ).

At the center of #MeToo news for a few weeks, Adèle Haenel denounced the touching of a French director with whom she had collaborated when she was a teenager in a forum organized by Médiapart. Since then, she has become the symbol of a French feminism for which the right to annoy no longer exists.

There are only women in this film. Was it important for you to participate in this project?

Noémie Merlant : I thought it was important to play in a film about women, with a woman's point of view with women. Films with only men, with the vision of men, where we see women in relation to men, that's it ...

Adèle Haenel : You can almost see it in a comical aspect! Is that so ? Are we so invisible? So that it is absolutely shocking for everyone that we make a film with only women! While films where there are only men, it is not shocking. This is completely normal. In fact, the idea is not to eradicate men but to offer an experience where one asks: what does it cause to put a man in the frame or not? This film deliberately asks this question.

And you, you play the role of the muse, the one that we normally objective?

Adèle Haenel : It's true that she is not a muse like the others, Héloïse. But in fact it is in the way we talk about it that the role of the muse becomes passive. Because basically it was the place of women in the history of art. When we think back to the role of the muse: the woman enters a room and the man thinks, the man creates. This kind of bullshit, and well that annoys me a lot! It was about talking about the intellectual, artistic and romantic excitement that there can be just because there is consent and collaboration. In fact, when two brains confront each other, when people discuss the issues and look for plastic and aesthetic solutions, it is quite exciting, more than having a dominant, overwhelming point of view.

Speaking of collaboration, there's this scene where the three characters decide to paint an abortion. An exploration of the female body never seen before in cinema ...

Adèle Haenel : We have had a lot of opportunity to travel in the virile construction of the body, it's true. Living on the side of men, that we know what it is. There is a lack of representations of what abortion is in the cinema… It is not even a theme, even the rules, it does not interest the cinema: it's crazy!

How did you prepare for the roles of Marianne and Héloïse?

Noémie Merlant : For the role of Marianne, I worked on the painter's gaze. I watched Hélène Delmaire a lot, who painted the pictures in the film. It is a dance to be found between the comings and goings of the painter about him.

Adèle Haenel : It's film centered on the idea of ​​looking and precisely getting out of the passive aspect. What interested me was to build the character around the action and to move from the object to the subject. In fact, initially the position of Heloise coming out of the convent is a position where she is not asked to collaborate. I studied the possibility of resistance: we wanted to make realistic portraits of resistance fighters. Which does not imply being a strong woman in the sense that a woman is expected to sacrifice herself for her cause. Which is another way of making us shut our mouths so it annoys me even more but the mode of resistance that Héloïse chooses in the film is a mode of absence: " I do whatever is asked of me as an object but you will never know who I am. There will always be some kind of stress in you to ask yourself: there may be someone hiding behind this object. "

Would you say Portrait of a Girl on Fire is a feminist film?

Adèle Haenel and Noémie Merlant : Yes !!

And, you, as women, aren't you afraid to call yourself feminists?

Noémie Merlant : No, I'm just afraid that people don't know what it's like to be a feminist. Some think it is a fight against men but it is not that at all.

Adèle Haenel : To question forms precisely, feminism is interesting. It should also be seen in a dynamic of representation. For me, being a feminist means re-inventing forms. Since the history of cinema is centered on male gauze and a hierarchy between the sexes. Which has produced very interesting forms, but potentially there is a whole field around that says that cinema is the gaze of men on women, of the dominant on the dominated: it's a dead end. Whereas collaboration is more inventive. When you address yourself in a language of domination, you sterilize a good part of your audience. For me, the female gaze is not the mirror of the male gaze but rather a way of approaching the spectator as a total spectator, not gendered.

[elizabeth-mitchells]

it’s just me completely alone with my list of favorite youtube videos that make me smile

[haenelsexual]

okay, but like how does one achieve this level of attractiveness 😫

i'm-

[thexfridax]

.

Claire Mathon, AFC, discusses her work on Céline Sciamma’s film “Portrait de la jeune fille en feu”, 23 May 2019

Cinematographer Claire Mathon, AFC, sat down for an interview with François Reumont to discuss her work on Céline Sciamma’s film Portrait [de la] jeune fille en feu. Here, we offer you a transcript of her words.

Watch the filmed interview in which Claire Mathon discusses Portrait de la jeune fille en feu.

Screentests in digital and 35mm The choice as to the recording format was discussed very early on. Screentests comparing 35mm-Leica Summilux and RED Monstro-Leica Thalia convinced us to choose the RED Monstro for its incarnation and the presence that were apparent from the first faces we filmed. I think that the size of the sensor and the finesse of these images, shot in 7K, participate in creating that sensation. But the tests also gave us a film reference we used when we colour timed the digital images, particularly in its contrasts. Céline Sciamma’s film portrays the memory of a love story that takes place in the 18th century, but we didn’t want to highlight the past dimension; instead, we wanted to invent our own 18th century — “our2018th century,” said Céline — by giving it a contemporary resonance.

Following these tests, I took photos on film throughout shooting, so that we could use them as references. This was actually the beginning of a series of portraits of Céline, photos taken under the film’s lights. A different way of questioning the relationship of creation between the person who looks and the person who is looked at. As Céline says, “In our atelier, there is no muse. There are only colleagues who mutually inspire one another.”

Portraits and faces Painting and the work of painting are very present in this film.

I obviously began by interesting myself in the painting of the 18th century and its female painters (Vigée Le Brun, Artemisia Gentileschi, and Adélaïde Labille-Guiard). We went to the Louvre together. The female painter in the film does not exist, Céline chose a young painter, Hélène Delmaire, who was the same age as the character and who had classical training in oil painting. The three of us worked together to create her paintings and to define their rendering. It was important to Céline that we film her work and the gestures of her work in real time.

Even though it wasn’t the same period, Corot’s portraits inspired us. In them, one doesn’t much perceive the colour and the direction of the light, but rather how the light causes the colour of skin, of fabric, and the backgrounds to appear... as though the colour of the light was what is most capable of causing the subject’s colours to appear.

The rendering of skin colour was primordial in my work. I sought both softness, with no hard shadows, a slightly satiny and non-realistic result that remains natural and extremely living. The makeup artist, Marie Luiset, and I together took the time to visualize this max of lens/lighting/filter/makeup over the course of several tests with the actresses and the costumes. We had to blur the raw and contemporary aspect of the faces, while keeping the precision and the nuances of the colours, but finding a rendering of the skin that would bring a bit of the period into the image through its picturality. We often discussed the faces in terms of landscapes.

I took a great deal of pleasure in watching the actresses, in capturing the slightest variations, in getting to know their features and in seeing how the light and the camera angles would modify them.

Looking/Image and directing The relationship that I have with Céline is truly one of the cinema. We have a shared pleasure and faith in cinematography and in cinematographic fabrication. Céline’s directing style is very precise and the image is one element of that. I remember the long takes (the film is often filmed with long takes) of the two actresses which were extremely choreographed, down to the millimetre of the position of their faces in relation to one another, such as the shot of them in profile, on the cliff, where Marianne cannot see Héloïse because of how close they are to one another.

We worked a great deal on the rhythm of these shots. The film is first and foremost a love story: Céline wanted to embody “desire and the thought of desire.” We had to look at these faces and not frame them. The length of the takes participates in that desire. We re-watched some of Bergman’s films, as he was magnificently able to film women with a unique proximity and intimacy.

Filming the dialectic of the gazes, the force of attraction between the two women, was one of the subjects of my work with Matthieu Caudroy who had to try to be a camera that looks, that peers. These shots were almost all filmed with a 70 mm lens and I wanted to find the correct centring of the faces within the frame.

The interiors of the studio We first shot all of the outdoors in Brittany, and then we shot the château in Seine-et-Marne. This 18th-century château hadn’t been lived in or restored, and its woodwork, its colours, and its parquet floors had remained frozen in time. The set designer, Thomas Grezaud, very carefully respected the materials and worked on the sketches of the location.

The château was a difficult (and expensive) location to light, because of its dimension and because the artist’s studio was on the 1st floor (8-metre-tall windows on the courtyard side and 16-metre-tall on the moat side), not to mention the constraints of a listed historical monument. Within the studio, all of the lighting was artificial. Ernesto Giolitti, the gaffer, the key grip, Marc Wilhelm, and I together had a large structure built on one side so that we could master the light and cause it to change sequence by sequence. LEDs on DMX, which were controlled by an iPad, allowed us to adapt to the weather and the changes in the light outdoors. The windows were managed with chassis outfitted with various neutral densities and scrims, which were made-to-measure for each window by the set design team during pre-light. I tried to make it natural, with random variations in the lighting, with the memory of the changing and living light from our shooting in Brittany, we liked to think that we’d brought a bit of Quiberon sand back with us in our pockets.

The candles I was lucky to be able to do a series of tests to refine the amount of light from the sources, the smoke and the flames that we were going to use at night. Producer Bénédicte Couvreur gave me a lot of support and allowed us to devote time to working on the image, and I am very grateful to her for that.

For the candles, I didn’t want to be too realistic, too dependent on the candles, even though the light had to be believable for that time. From the first tests, Céline and I felt that what we wanted on our sketches encouraged us (insofar as possible) to place the candles outside of the frame. I kept the idea of darkness, of mystery, without necessarily following those directions exactly.

I spent a lot of time seeking the right warmth, the right colour that would enable us to preserve richness in the colours, especially for the painting and the skin tones. The colour at night was the most complicated thing to manage in colour timing.

Another subject of our tests was the movement of light, the scintillating of the flames that we tried to attenuate as much as we could. I liked it when the candlelight resulted from a mix of various sources: candles installed in the cone of a blonde, 2 000K LED strips (Softlight), and small tungsten bulbs set up on garlands (Rope Lights). The complexity of the long takes often required us to perch lights that Ernesto Giolitti had created from lightweight LED strips.

Follow-up on the dailies and colour grading Colourist Jérôme Bigueur was an important partner for me at every step of my work: tests, shooting during which he supervised the dailies, and of course, final colour timing. This long-term collaboration allowed us to make the right choices for the rendering of skin. For example, I didn’t filter while shooting when a flame was in the frame, leaving that work to colour timing. Colour timing took a bit over three weeks, and this time was invaluable. To the end, I sought a balance between the memory, the period, and the present of this passionate love story.

(Interview by François Reumont, transcription and formatting by Hélène de Roux, translated from French by Alexander Baron-Raiffe on behalf of the AFC)

—

Portrait de la jeune fille en feu Set designer: Thomas Grezaud Costumes: Dorothée Guiraud Makeup Artist: Marie Luiset Painter (hand double): Hélène Delmaire Sound: Julien Sicart Editing: Julien Lacheray

—

Crew Assistant Camera: Alain Guichaoua and Ombeline Tomboise Gaffer: Ernesto Giolitti Key Grip: Marc Wilhelm

Technical Data Lighting and Grip equipment: TSF Caméra (RED Monstro, Leica Thalia lenses) and TSF Grip Lab: Hiventy Colourist: Jérôme Bigueur Digital FX: CGEV

—

Source: [English], [French]

🎥: Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019) ✨

• Director: Céline Sciamma

• Cinematographer: Claire Mathon

• Rotten Tomatoes: 98%

• Cast: Adéle Haenel, Noémie Merlant, Luàna Bajrami, Valeria Golino, Armande Boulanger, etc ...

[tenemos-que-hablar]

Noémie and Adèle looked and sounded like an old couple during that interview 😆😆 I hope we get MORE interview from that same day, they were so funny

Not gonna lie nonny, these UK interviews that are surfacing are by far my favorite out of all the English-speaking ones I’ve seen.

They seem so playful and tactile with each other and the way Noémie adorably scolds Adèle and how Adèle teases Noémie certainly screams old married couple.

And every time Noémie laughs, I swear an angel gets their wings.

[bereaving]

[rosedelosvientos]

Update: You can now read this and more sillyass POALOF fan comics all in one page! -> https://bit.ly/2WWiOHA

In two separate interviews, Céline (and maybe Adèle?can't remember. There was a yt video) mentions an "intergalactic emperor" so this came to mind (thanks ladyonfire28 for that translation! ). Well DV's no emperor but when I was a kid I thought he had that vibe ^^

[thexfridax]

Translated radio interview / transcript

Dance of the gazes and female desire

Susanne Burg, Deutschlandfunk, 26th of October 2019

// Additions or clarifications for translating purposes are denoted as [T: …]. You can listen to the interview (in German) here. Noémie speaks in English, but unfortunately you can’t hear most of it due to the simultaneous translation (or maybe you can if you have superhuman hearing). I’ve tried to combine the transcript with the recording where possible. Apologies, it gets a bit messy. //

‘Portrait of a Lady on Fire’ is about a female painter who is supposed to paint a woman, who doesn’t want to be painted. The film received the Best Screenplay in Cannes. Lead actress Noémie Merlant explains why this film is so special.

One of the films that has been talked about a lot in Cannes this year, in the queues, in reviews and finally at the award ceremony, was ‘Portrait of a Lady on Fire’. […] It is a period film, but turns many gender roles upside down and tenderly creates a utopia of liberated love.

[T: Omitted short description of film]

Interviewer: You play the painter Marianne, who is commissioned by the Countess to do a portrait of her younger daughter Héloïse. Héloïse refuses to pose. Marianne therefore has to study her face during the day and then paint her at night. Why did she even accept this commission? Does she think in the beginning, it is just a job like any other?

Noémie Merlant: She is a painter and is still at the beginning of her career. She wants to work and as a woman gets the opportunity to do so. At the time there were maybe around a hundred [T: womans 😘], who were painters. She is modern in the sense that she is and wants to work as a freelancer, [T: (as per recording) so she has to accept to work this way, in secret.]

--- [T: This bit is not in the recording for whatever reason]

I: She does that, she studies Héloïse’s face, they talk with each other. When does she start to feel guilty, because she is lying to Héloïse?

NM: I believe that she already feels a bit guilty in the beginning, when she accepts the job. This guilt is getting stronger, the more she feels for Héloïse. The more in love she feels, the more guilty she also feels.

---

I: How does their relationship change, when Héloïse finds out?

NM: [T: (as per recording) It changes everything, because then Héloïse accepts to collaborate,] she accepts to sit for the portrait. From this moment, it is about the collaboration of two women, and the love story can really begin. They collaborate on the same level, the gazes are horizontal. The concept of the muse is reinvented in this film – Héloïse is not a muse, [T: (as per recording) she is a collaborator. So this starts at that moment.]

I: Héloïse has a very strong opinion about Marianne’s painting. And Marianne is also not very happy about the result of her work at first. Why is that?

NM: Marianne has the opportunity not to marry, but to pursue her passion as painter. But she is stuck, she hasn’t really found her art. She is trapped in the constraints of a commissioned painter. But when she starts to collaborate with Héloïse, when Héloïse practically opens her eyes, that is when Marianne realizes she has to be sincere with this portrait, in this case it means the intimacy and shared moments of these women. Héloïse has found her way back in life, [T: (as per recording) and Marianne is back in life, too, so it’s easier for her to find the kind of truth in the portrait.]

--- [T: This bit is not in the recording either]

I: I read that the director Céline Sciamma was inspired by the painter Hélène Delmaire for the character of Marianne? How much did you look at her art as preparation for the film?

NM: It was important for me to closely observe Hélène at work, to absorb the gaze of the painter. She has a certain kind of gaze that all painters have somehow, when they work – how she looks at something that she paints and then at the canvas. I had to adopt this gaze, the eyes of a painter. I also observed her rhythm at work, her gestures and all the technical steps to create a portrait. You can see in the film that the portrait is reminiscent of modern art at first, the light, the shadows, how it’s built piece by piece. I find it important to understand this right from the beginning.

---

I: The dresses in the film are quite impressive, in my opinion. And they are also quite important for the protagonists in the film. How much does the dress, which you wear in the film, characterise Marianne?

NM: [T: (as per recording) This dress got pockets. It’s true at that time there were pockets,] but these were banned later on and disappeared from the dresses. These pockets were a step towards autonomy for women. As a painter these pockets are important for my character und also influence her gestures. There is also a cape that was made for the character of Marianne, it is more of a masculine cape. This dress, the pockets and the cape also helped me to get into the spirit of the character. Same for the fact that the dress with the corset was quite tight and heavy. The film also gives an idea how oppressive these social forces were, and with the heavy dress I could directly feel these restrictions. During the course of the film [T: (as per recording) the costumes get less (tight), and we smile more, we feel more, we desire more. And so the costume helped (with) that.]

I: It is a story about love and art, which takes place in the 18th century, but it also feels quite contemporary. How did the idea that the story is also saying something about the present time influence your interpretation of the role?

NM: [T: (as per recording) When I act, even if it’s in the 18th century…] I don’t think about these things, when I act. There are of course the costumes and the text that cannot be changed, but when I act and when Adèle acts, then we act together and are fully in the moment, we create that moment. But when I read the script for the first time, I was [T: in the bathtube] captivated by the film. This story has been missing so far. The stories of female painters were erased historically, and cannot be found anymore. Stories about women and the female gaze have been missing. There are only those with the male gaze, which became the universal gaze. [T: (as per recording) … it was really strong because it was necessary to share this (story) and give back this expression to the womans (sic), you know.]

--- [T: This bit is not in the recording either]

I: How does the atmosphere change on set, when it is mainly women working there?

NM: There are almost no men in the film. There are a lot of films with only men, but we don’t realise it. That is normal. This film is a kind of invitation for women and men to look at women as they are. We were indeed mainly women on set. It was different in the way… we were not necessarily freer, but maybe more ourselves and less intimidated, and there was just this horizontal gaze between all of us.

---

I: Marianne and Héloïse talk a lot with each other, but there is also a lot of non-verbal communication, especially when they start to fall in love with each other and which must take place in secret at first. How did you work on the non-verbal communication between the two of you?

NM: [T: (as per recording) Yes, the silence (is) a big part in the movie.] It was also all in the script already, the gazes, the gestures and so on. But we worked a lot on the details. An important detail is the music. There are only two pieces of music in the film. It was very difficult to listen to music then, it was predominantly silent. And when you then hear the music, you immediately thought ‘Wow!’ – this could also be conveyed through the volume. It is the same for the gazes, the touches and the silence between Héloïse and Marianne – all those details were already written down, but it is about how you fill them out, how you adopt these, and what you put in.  

Adèle has for example suggested a gaze, and it was always a different one, just like this, or with a smile. So it was a surprise, because I didn’t expect it. We worked on finding our autonomy in these. And even the breathing is important in this film. It influences every scene and their rhythm. If you finish a scene with an inhale or exhale, it changes everything. [T: (as per recording) That was great and really interesting, we were working on holding back, you know.]

I: You are in each scene of the film. What does that mean for your preparation and work?

NM: [T: (as per recording) Yes, it is exhausting, because you] have to be present the whole time – it is not about not losing control, that can be good sometimes – but to constantly be mentally present is more exhausting than being physically there. We didn’t work chronologically. It is important that the audience notices how my character and Héloïse’s change during the course of the film. And because we didn’t work chronologically, we had to carefully prepare each scene at the kitchen table, and carefully check where we are in the story, in the relationship, in the work.

In the beginning we both kind of wear a mask, we don’t show much of us, we are reserved and shy. And piece by piece, we open up a bit more. The eyes, the smile, the mouth, the dress, everything is more open. [T: (as per recording) So I had to really stay focused in each scene, where am I at that moment.]

I: You worked quite intensively on this film and it was then in competition at Cannes in May. How is it for you to see the film and yourself on the big screen?

NM: [T: (as per recording) I have a mix of feelings.] I am happy, because I love this film, it is great and I am proud of it. On the other hand, I always find it difficult to see myself or to hear my voice, [T: (as per recording) but I try to forget that and you know, appreciate what I see.]

Picture sources: [1, (c) Stephane Cardinale - Corbis/Corbis via Getty Images], [2], [3, NEON], [4, Joel C Ryan/Invision/AP]

[cerf-et-loutre]

Merlant Fashion Week: Day 2 - SOHO DELIGHT

I know I teased spring for today in my first post, but I’ve decided to change to a chronological order, except for the last outfit, as I want to end as powerful as I started. All of these outfits are my personal favorites, without counting high couture gala dresses, because that deserves another whole endeavor that my limited understanding of fashion could not possible meet.

So, now let’s go to Toronto, Canada. September 6, 2019 was a very busy day for out girls, who had to do interviews early in the morning, photoshoots, a Q&A that it’s still mostly hidden to us (which makes me mad) and finally, the party Neon threw to celebrate both POALOF and Parasite. As usual, Noé was flawless.

 1. LV POP CROPPED PERFECTO (Louis Vuitton)

One of my favorite jackets, I love the color, the mosaic detail upfront, the position of the zipper and the thingy that closes the waist (sorry, I don’t know the proper english terms). I just think this is super elegant and N wears it like a goddess.

Price: 3,450.00 USD

Sizes from 36 (S or 4) to 40 (L or 8)

“With its bold shoulders, cropped length and cinched waist, this piece captures the season's jacket silhouette. The masculine wool jacquard fabric contrasts with a playful LV Pop printed leather on the flap, its colorful 3D Monogram pattern inspired by TV test cards. Details include a lambskin belt buckle and a signed LV zip puller and snap button.”

Detailed Features

Main : 54% Wool 46% Polyamide

Other : Lamb

Lining : 100% Silk

Blanc Lait, White

Oversize fit

Made in France

 2. Black Chemisier Soie (Silk Blouse) (Society Room)

Another Society Room design, and here, it’s important to note, she’s wearing the whole set, both blouse and pants. You can see it in the picture below, she’s just not using another shirt or turtleneck underneath like the model is. I find that very interesting. We know N is a very chilly person, but here, the low open neck matches a lot with A’s blouse design, and I think this was the intention. This the first time they match clothes in a loose way.

Price: Between EUR 200-280.00 (Based on other designs of the same material)

3. Black Skinny Pants (Society Room)

She wore these same pants during ArcLight. In the photo above, you can see the detail of the strip on the side. We can also see how much the design differs from Adèle’s with the detail on the waist.

4. I Love Vivier Suede Ballerinas (Roger Vivier)

I personally like these shoes a lot. They are not only comfy, but the design is mad cute, and I love flats a lot, those are the only girly shoes I love to wear anytime. These ones, I’ve named as the “heart-shaped flats”.

Price: 645.00 USD

Size: Black, Silver.  

Size: 35 to 40

Inspired by a print from the archives, I Love Vivier is a declaration of love by the Maison for the female kind. Crafted in suede, the new ballerinas are characterized by a tapered toe and two-tone underfoot with a heart design on the interior. A unique and sensual touch for every day.

Detailed Features

Suede upper

Tapered toe

Leather outsole

Maintenance and care cards included.

Branded dustbag